What are some of options for Buffing Characters?

[Talionis]

I'm specifically looking for all the different options.

I know Bards (Bardblade) and Dragonfire Inspiration are a standard, but what are other options to make the rest of the team better. I'm not necessarily looking for high powered options, but as many different options as people can think of. A lot of the guides are down at Brilliantgameologists, but I don't remember seeing a handbook or anything that showcased different options for characters that wanted to Buff.


What are some of the better buffing characters abilities and options?

Are there Prestige Classes that are particularly good at Buffing other characters?

Are their some really classic spells that I should look at for Buffing. I know Haste falls into the category of don't forget it, but are there other spells similar that are of enormous benefit?


I've always like optimizing Buffing characters because you can play with less strong PC's and they enjoy what you do to the game. All the PC's seem better and the DM can throw more powerful threats at you, while your character maybe the most optimized, you don't break the game and you keep everyone feeling good about their characters.

[Juntao112]

Cleric focused on buffing

Marshal

Dragon Shaman

Dread Pirate prestige class

War Weaver prestige class

[Quiddle]

One word, Glibness (http://dndtools.eu/spells/players-handbook-v35--6/glibness--2821/).

[Cranthis]

One word, Glibness (http://dndtools.eu/spells/players-handbook-v35--6/glibness--2821/).

Buff. Not Bluff.

[Krazzman]

Are their some really classic spells that I should look at for Buffing. I know Haste falls into the category of don't forget it, but are there other spells similar that are of enormous benefit?
[/LIST]


Protection from evil. The Immunity part is important.

In a PF campaign I'm playing a Sorcerer with a few buff spells, Haste, Bulls Strength and Enlarge Person (this one via Wand) on the Party Barbarian/Paladin/Ranger and those 3 go to town... I sort of don't have it since we have a Healing/Buff focused Cleric and an Allround Abjuration focused Wizard...

[Cog]

Buff. Not Bluff.
An entire party buffed to bluff could be quite effective, though.

[limejuicepowder]

An entire party buffed to bluff could be quite effective, though.

Sounds like extreme redundancy to me. If you have one super-powered bluffer, just let him to the talking. The other characters just have to keep their mouth shut while he works.

Alternatively, bluff isn't applicable to the encounter and the bluff party cries.

[Talionis]

Protection from evil. The Immunity part is important.

In a PF campaign I'm playing a Sorcerer with a few buff spells, Haste, Bulls Strength and Enlarge Person (this one via Wand) on the Party Barbarian/Paladin/Ranger and those 3 go to town... I sort of don't have it since we have a Healing/Buff focused Cleric and an Allround Abjuration focused Wizard...

Protection from evil is another trick I need to put in my arsenal.. Thank you!

[tiercel]

Polymorph is a stupid, broken spell. As soon as you have the resources to spam it on the entire party, We Might Be Giants isn't just a band name. (And giants is just the beginning of course; they are just conveniently humanoid-shaped for letting you keep use of all your gear.)

Heck, if you are thinking hardcore buffing you're probably looking into the Chain Spell feat (along with shenanigans that alter touch spells to have a range greater than touch) -- the chained effect nerfs offensive applications to secondary targets but not buff applications (that is, every secondary target gets a buff just as good as the primary target).

If you are the kind of buffer who has the chance to "prepare the battleground" much, Earthbound Spell is interesting since you could basically make zero-gp, short term "traps" that fire off buff spells when you step on them. Dump a few of them on the ground in adjacent squares, then in round 1 you step on all the prepared spaces and set off a sequence of buffs (while still having a standard action to burn).

As a full-time buffer, you'll not only want to be able to make your party generically *better* (e.g. haste, heroism, prayer, fly stat-boosting, etc) but make them immune from various kinds of harm (protection from evil or the magic circle variant protects you from active mental control, and summons' physical attacks, freedom of movement negates grappling and a lot of battlefield control, resist energy blunts spell or breath weapon or energy-charged melee attacks, wind wall shuts down missile weapons, especially mass volleys, death ward not only stops actual [Death] effects but nasty negative energy attacks, faerie fire/glitterdust -while not technically buffs-- defeat invisibility, spell resistance against, well, enemy spells....)

Basically if there is some negative status effect or something bad that can happen to you, there's generally a counter (as in something that will prevent and not merely remove the effect).

If you want this kind of variety, you're probably playing a particularly defensive-minded variant of the Batman Wizard. (If your lactose tolerance is high, it sounds like an Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil type build.) Classic Cleric has plenty of these spells (plus status curing for effects that get through your counters).

Season your buffing with a little bit of summoning (more buff targets!) and battlefield control (because buffing and debuffing often work so well together) and you can help your party become a juggernaut while hardly lifting a d20 yourself.

...don't get me wrong, bards are awesome, but the standard Inspire Courage optimization tricks (e.g. Words of Creation, using Dragonfire Inspiration to stack multiple IC effects) may well have to pass a lactose tolerance test for actual gameplay at your table. Frankly, I find that even mildly buffed vanilla Inspire Courage, together with a fun debuff like Haunting Melody, already goes a long way to making bards handy to have around every fight, much less the rest of their bag of tricks.

[Leon]

Sounds like extreme redundancy to me. If you have one super-powered bluffer, just let him to the talking. The other characters just have to keep their mouth shut while he works.

Alternatively, bluff isn't applicable to the encounter and the bluff party cries.

Which can be boring for the rest of the party. Have had a game where glibness on the group resulted in hilarity and ease of entry into a lot of places (including meeting a king) until we had to talk to a oracle who could ignore the spell

[JeminiZero]

Protection from evil is another trick I need to put in my arsenal.. Thank you!

Much better is Disobedience (complete scoundrel). Same protection, lasts hours per level, has range and so can be chain-spelled across the entire party.

Generally, aside from the Dragonfire Inspiration Bard, the other solid party buffers are the Wizard/Sorcerer (Enlarge Person, Sonic Weapon, Haste, Disobedience, Greater Invisibility, Mass Fly, etc) and the Cleric (Mass Conviction, Elation, Mass Aid, Recitation).

The Druid has some spells in common with the Cleric (Mass Energy Resistance, Sheltered Vitality, Deathward, Freedom of Movement), but does not have as many party buffs.

[andromax]

War Weaver prestige class

Really doesn't get any better than this. Take the feat Arcane Disciple with this, and pick some cleric buffs you like.

[Person_Man]

1) Cleric, Druid, Wizard, Sorcerer, and Bard with support from the right splat books. You can also pull it off (somewhat less effectively) with most other full casters, such as Spirit Shaman, Favored Soul, Wu Jen, and even Dread Necromancer (if your party takes the right Feats or races). Incarnate also has a few useful buffs, as does any Tome of Battle class with the White Raven Discipline. It's also worth mentioning that the Marshal and Dragon Shaman comparatively suck at buffing, even though that's supposed to be their primary class feature. (Although there are certain niche builds that one level of Marshal is useful for). Their auras just scale very poorly, and the effects of the auras can generally be better duplicated by spells.

2) Any prestige class which provides full caster progression to a full caster. Any Bard class which provides full Music progression. War Weaver from Heroes of Battle is generally considered one of the better magical buff classes at mid levels, because you can cast certain spells on yourself and they effect your allies as well. For example, you cast Cure Wounds on yourself, but heal everyone in your party. (But note that there are a bunch of weird restrictions on how it works). A Kensai can transfer some or all of his BAB and/or Saves to a willing ally, which is a fairly big deal. I'm fond of War Chanter for melee bard buffer builds. His capstone ability essentially gives everyone in your party the highest BAB of any member of your party, which rocks, especially when you party with a Kensai, a Warhulk, and someone that Summons a lot.

3) Literally hundreds of options out there for this.

Just remember the metagame for buffing. If you buff all the time, then your DM will (consciously or unconsciously) adjust the difficulty of your encounters up to your buffed up power level. But if you only buff rarely, when you really need it, he's less likely to do so. This is another reason why spell based buffers tend to be more powerful then "always on" buffers. (And it's why you may wish to avoid spells with a very long duration, or the Persistent spell trick). They can react to a situation with a wide menu of options, instead of just always having the power level amped up by X%.